"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things"
About this Quote
Wordsworth is smuggling a radical claim into a sentence that sounds like pastoral wallpaper: perception is not a camera, it is a moral and emotional instrument. The “eye made quiet” is the opposite of the acquisitive, restless gaze of modern life (even in his day, “modern” meant industrial noise, speed, and spectacle). Quiet here isn’t emptiness; it’s disciplined attention, a mind de-cluttered enough to receive the world rather than conquer it.
“Harmony” does double duty. It’s musical, yes, but it also gestures toward a felt rightness between self and environment. Wordsworth’s Romantic wager is that nature isn’t just scenery; it’s a partner in shaping consciousness. When the eye is tuned by harmony, joy stops being mere pleasure and becomes a “deep power” - an inner current with epistemic force. Joy, in this formulation, is a way of knowing, not a reward for knowing.
The kicker is “we see into the life of things.” That preposition, “into,” makes the line audacious: not observing surfaces, but penetrating vitality. The subtext is anti-materialist and anti-utilitarian; the world isn’t a stockpile of resources or a backdrop for human drama. It’s alive with meaning, if you approach it correctly.
Context matters: this is Wordsworth after disillusionment with revolutionary politics, rebuilding faith in perception itself. Where the public sphere failed to deliver liberation, he locates another kind of freedom in the trained, quiet eye - a private practice with public implications.
“Harmony” does double duty. It’s musical, yes, but it also gestures toward a felt rightness between self and environment. Wordsworth’s Romantic wager is that nature isn’t just scenery; it’s a partner in shaping consciousness. When the eye is tuned by harmony, joy stops being mere pleasure and becomes a “deep power” - an inner current with epistemic force. Joy, in this formulation, is a way of knowing, not a reward for knowing.
The kicker is “we see into the life of things.” That preposition, “into,” makes the line audacious: not observing surfaces, but penetrating vitality. The subtext is anti-materialist and anti-utilitarian; the world isn’t a stockpile of resources or a backdrop for human drama. It’s alive with meaning, if you approach it correctly.
Context matters: this is Wordsworth after disillusionment with revolutionary politics, rebuilding faith in perception itself. Where the public sphere failed to deliver liberation, he locates another kind of freedom in the trained, quiet eye - a private practice with public implications.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | William Wordsworth, 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey' (first published 1798) — the line appears near the poem's close (often cited as 'Tintern Abbey'). |
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